I have always loved living in our cul de sac, but possibly never more than this 4th of July! We had such an incredibly fun day celebrating with our friends, neighbors and family that I cant imagine ever living anywhere else. It was our best Independence Day celebration ever, and really brought home what this day means to me. Time spent with family and good friends, love for our country, feelings of gratitude for the men and women who have given their lives for us. A celebration of our freedom, our blessings and good fortune, and of course a celebration of our right to blow stuff up and stuff ourselves with delicious food and drink until we burst!
Matthews sisters and their families joined us and we spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen, baking desserts and catching up on everyone's lives. The kids played outside with Taylor and Cole and pestered Jessica and Wade and their family for a while. I decided to take Killian, Rowan and Riley to the green space near our house to set off the parachute men fireworks we had bought them. Last year we did them in the cul de sac, and 3 of the 4 got stuck in our big trees. I thought that the park area by our pool would be a better choice this year, and I was right...but just barely. We only had two parachute men this year, and they both narrowly avoided landing high in the treetops (you can see the teeny parachute way up in the air):
Luckily we got them both, the kids were so happy to run back home and show everyone!
When we got back we started on dinner, Matthew grilled up some BBQ chicken while I made some grass fed beef hamburgers for Killian and I. When the meat was done, we threw together a salad (made almost entirely from our garden) and some homemade cornbread and headed next door to Jessica and Wades. We joined 2 other sets of neighbors there, and lots of Jessica's family, who I completely adore. They are so much fun to hang out with! There was more food than everyone could possibly eat, and with the beer and mixed drinks flowing freely, everyone was having a really great time!
Matthew, Michelle and Jason being silly:
Some of our neighbors and their friends at the table, Jessica, her mom, Jason and Matthew in the background trying to stay ahead of the mess!
Wade holding court at the bar (his bartender experience sure came in handy!) with our new neighbors, and some of Jessica's family and friends. They are such a great group of people, we are so lucky to know them all!
I wasn't surprised to catch the kids around the Wii....they sure love their video games! It didnt last long before they were all ushered back outside with parents proclaiming "Its too nice to be inside playing video games"!
There were so many kids running around that we had to have a quick talk with them about firework safety - I didn't want anyone getting burned or worse! We decided that only the big kids could be in the street lighting the fireworks, and they were thrilled to have the honor. The littler ones tried to keep sneaking in, and of course so did the much bigger daddies. Boys! They never seem to outgrow blowing stuff up!
The girls were content to sit and watch most of the time:
Along with about half of the adults (the rest were out back at the bar!):
If they weren't at the bar or watching the smaller fireworks the kids were doing, they were at the dessert bar loading up on goodies! I had spent the afternoon making a couple contributions - a blueberry and peach cobbler, and a chocolate raspberry tort:
They both turned out so good, and I got lots of compliments on them. The cobbler went perfectly with the homemade ice cream that Jessica's mom had made, and there were a couple other homemade desserts there as well....it was a delicious dessert free for all!
We had SO many fireworks! We had bought a bunch from Oregon and a good amount from Washington (they have way better fireworks up there) and when we added ours to the pile that our neighbors and their friends had amassed, it became quite impressive! We did smaller ones throughout the day, but really started the show around 9pm. Wade and Matthew were the main firework lighters, they would do 2-3 Oregon fireworks at a time, then do a bunch of Washington ones at the same time, or one right after another. Then back to Oregon - we were hoping to avoid all the visits we had last year from the police. It worked! We didn't have them show up at all, although about 15 minutes after we decided to end the show, we saw a cruiser roll by at the end of the street. Whew! I didn't manage to get pictures of any of the bigger fireworks, but I liked the way these two turned out:
We ended up doing fireworks for 3+ hours straight before calling it quits at midnight. We still have boxes full of fireworks left over!! I guess we will save them for New Years, or maybe even next 4th of July. I have a feeling that next years party is going to be even bigger than this years. There is already talk of hiring a DJ to spin some tunes for everyone, and of course - bigger and badder fireworks!
One thing I would love to have next year is a professional street sweeper on call for the morning after! It took us forever to sweep up all the fireworks and debris from the night before. This is a pile of just some of the Oregon fireworks we set off - we filled up 4 black bags with spent fireworks, and our neighbors had 2-3 more!
I found this little treasure in that big pile of fireworks:
Its a pile of army guys that the big boys had melted down with sparklers. Guess we need to keep a better eye on what they are doing next year!
We all had a wonderful time, and cant wait for this time next year to celebrate again! Happy 4th of July!!
Matthews sisters and their families joined us and we spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen, baking desserts and catching up on everyone's lives. The kids played outside with Taylor and Cole and pestered Jessica and Wade and their family for a while. I decided to take Killian, Rowan and Riley to the green space near our house to set off the parachute men fireworks we had bought them. Last year we did them in the cul de sac, and 3 of the 4 got stuck in our big trees. I thought that the park area by our pool would be a better choice this year, and I was right...but just barely. We only had two parachute men this year, and they both narrowly avoided landing high in the treetops (you can see the teeny parachute way up in the air):
Luckily we got them both, the kids were so happy to run back home and show everyone!
When we got back we started on dinner, Matthew grilled up some BBQ chicken while I made some grass fed beef hamburgers for Killian and I. When the meat was done, we threw together a salad (made almost entirely from our garden) and some homemade cornbread and headed next door to Jessica and Wades. We joined 2 other sets of neighbors there, and lots of Jessica's family, who I completely adore. They are so much fun to hang out with! There was more food than everyone could possibly eat, and with the beer and mixed drinks flowing freely, everyone was having a really great time!
Matthew, Michelle and Jason being silly:
Some of our neighbors and their friends at the table, Jessica, her mom, Jason and Matthew in the background trying to stay ahead of the mess!
Wade holding court at the bar (his bartender experience sure came in handy!) with our new neighbors, and some of Jessica's family and friends. They are such a great group of people, we are so lucky to know them all!
I wasn't surprised to catch the kids around the Wii....they sure love their video games! It didnt last long before they were all ushered back outside with parents proclaiming "Its too nice to be inside playing video games"!
There were so many kids running around that we had to have a quick talk with them about firework safety - I didn't want anyone getting burned or worse! We decided that only the big kids could be in the street lighting the fireworks, and they were thrilled to have the honor. The littler ones tried to keep sneaking in, and of course so did the much bigger daddies. Boys! They never seem to outgrow blowing stuff up!
The girls were content to sit and watch most of the time:
Along with about half of the adults (the rest were out back at the bar!):
If they weren't at the bar or watching the smaller fireworks the kids were doing, they were at the dessert bar loading up on goodies! I had spent the afternoon making a couple contributions - a blueberry and peach cobbler, and a chocolate raspberry tort:
They both turned out so good, and I got lots of compliments on them. The cobbler went perfectly with the homemade ice cream that Jessica's mom had made, and there were a couple other homemade desserts there as well....it was a delicious dessert free for all!
We had SO many fireworks! We had bought a bunch from Oregon and a good amount from Washington (they have way better fireworks up there) and when we added ours to the pile that our neighbors and their friends had amassed, it became quite impressive! We did smaller ones throughout the day, but really started the show around 9pm. Wade and Matthew were the main firework lighters, they would do 2-3 Oregon fireworks at a time, then do a bunch of Washington ones at the same time, or one right after another. Then back to Oregon - we were hoping to avoid all the visits we had last year from the police. It worked! We didn't have them show up at all, although about 15 minutes after we decided to end the show, we saw a cruiser roll by at the end of the street. Whew! I didn't manage to get pictures of any of the bigger fireworks, but I liked the way these two turned out:
We ended up doing fireworks for 3+ hours straight before calling it quits at midnight. We still have boxes full of fireworks left over!! I guess we will save them for New Years, or maybe even next 4th of July. I have a feeling that next years party is going to be even bigger than this years. There is already talk of hiring a DJ to spin some tunes for everyone, and of course - bigger and badder fireworks!
One thing I would love to have next year is a professional street sweeper on call for the morning after! It took us forever to sweep up all the fireworks and debris from the night before. This is a pile of just some of the Oregon fireworks we set off - we filled up 4 black bags with spent fireworks, and our neighbors had 2-3 more!
I found this little treasure in that big pile of fireworks:
Its a pile of army guys that the big boys had melted down with sparklers. Guess we need to keep a better eye on what they are doing next year!
We all had a wonderful time, and cant wait for this time next year to celebrate again! Happy 4th of July!!